Off-Duty N.H. FFs Rescue Carpenter
WEARE, N.H. --
A man was pinned underneath wooden trusses after a wall gave way at a home under construction in Weare on Monday.
Fire officials said Roger Hardy and his son were working on an addition to a home on South Sugar Hill Road when the wall collapsed. Hardy couldn't free himself, but a group of men working for GN Fencing at a project next door heard the loud bang and ran to help.
The men who came to Hardy's aid were also off-duty Manchester firefighters, and they were able to free him.
Jan Trudo hired GN Fencing to do work on her fence.
"We were talking about where we were going to put one of the gates when we heard this horrible sound, almost like a tree coming down, and they looked up and took off like a shot," she said.
Hardy was stuck on the second floor of the home.
"The south wall came down and dropped the roof rafters down onto the second floor where he was working," said Weare Fire Chief Ray Eaton.
Eaton said the rafters pinned Hardy's leg. The off-duty firefighters said they took a ladder and climbed to the second floor. They shimmied over on their stomachs to get to Hardy, and with the help of Hardy's son, they used a forklift to lower him.
"I couldn't see what I was doing with the forklift," said John Hardy, Roger Hardy's son. "They picked the trusses up to get them off of him. It did help out."
The firefighters used straps to immobilize Roger Hardy's leg. Eaton commended the job they did.
"Because they had him down onto the ground before we got there and they knew what to do, how to stabilize him and get him down, it made our job that much easier," Eaton said.
The firefighters declined to be interviewed on camera.
Trudo said she's glad she hired workers who had such unexpected skills.
"I would have gone hysterical because no one is around here during the day," she said. "I would have heard the noise and had to call 911, but it certainly wouldn't have had this quick outcome."
John Hardy said his father's ankle came out of its socket and his foot was fractured, but he is expected to recover.
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